Ghost of Clough

So you're basing a full formational change based on 5 games from last season?
I can make a judgement on Stretton based on what I've seen. Inches away from scoring on his league debut for us, 3 goals in 173 minutes for Stockport and 8 in 696 minutes for the U23s last season. Since he became a first year scholar in 18/19, he's scored 37 in 3654 minutes of football at various levels, not far off 1 every 90 minutes. Some players, such as Whittaker, take time to adjust to the increased physicality. Stretton so far has stepped up seamlessly every single time.
10 games for 3rd choice isn't too unreasonable, I agree. But, it's something we can leave until January to re-evaluate. Keeping Davies as 3rd choice until then is also reasonable, as it's only asking him to step in for 5 games.
"At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Byrne gets injured". Well evidence shows Byrne will play in 90% of the available minutes, so the amount of games we have to 'rely' on McDonald or Ebosele is minimal.
McDonald played against Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Brentford, plus very short periods on the pitch vs Bristol, QPR and Bournemouth. That was 6 appearances vs top 9 sides. I think that shows he has Rooney's trust.
Yes, it's not unusual for young players in their debut seasons to have a bad run of form. Especially for a wing back during a congested schedule. We won't get any money for Forsyth and he'll be on low wages anyway, so it makes little sense to sign a replacement backup.
Lawrence was involved in 34 goals in his first 3 seasons with us (18 the season before). If that's "average", then there must be a lot excellent wingers in this league.
Don't forget the RB becuae you don't want us to rely on McDonald or Ebosele. Why not throw a GK in there too and we can have a whole new 11.
To have a squad which doesn't 'rely' on academy graduates filling tiny gaps as you seem to desire, you'd need at least 30 players. That's exceptionally unreasonable.
Reading used the 2nd fewest players last season with 27. I'm using them as my example as they're similar to us in terms of the academies. Of those 27, 7 played fewer than 180 minutes of football with a few more playing around 5 games. Essentially a 20 man squad, which contained 5 academy graduates (Rinomhota, Richards, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre) - similar to us with Buchanan, Bird, Knight and Sibley
Our squad make-up would match theirs with just 5/6 signings. A rough comparison of our squad for the upcoming season vs their from last season:

I may not be a scout, but I believe I'm a very good judge of player in our academy. Over the past 10 years or so I can only recall being wrong about 2 players 'making it' in our first team - Callum Ball and Brad Foster - and there's still time for my call on Foster to be proven right. Well, I guess you can add Whittaker to the list too. From as far back as the Rowett season I identified Knight as a player who would make an impact on the first team (he was 16/17 at the time). Most people hadn't even heard his name until the end of the 18/19 season when he appeared in the playoff squads.
 
You don't like the comparison with Reading, despite their squad fighting relegation for the majority of the previous season (they only made 5 signings that summer, 3 on loan and 1 from L1).. so here's one with a Derby side which made a late challenge for top 6 2 seasons ago. Only 5 gaps, so chuck in a 6th summer signing in wherever you see fit.

I may not be a scout, but I believe I'm a very good judge of player in our academy. Over the past 10 years or so I can only recall being wrong about 2 players 'making it' in our first team - Callum Ball and Brad Foster - and there's still time for my call on Foster to be proven right. Well, I guess you can add Whittaker to the list too. From as far back as the Rowett season I identified Knight as a player who would make an impact on the first team (he was 16/17 at the time). Most people hadn't even heard his name until the end of the 18/19 season when he appeared in the playoff squads.
 
You don't like the comparison with Reading, despite their squad fighting relegation for the majority of the previous season (they only made 5 signings that summer, 3 on loan and 1 from L1).. so here's one with a Derby side which made a late challenge for top 6 2 seasons ago. Only 5 gaps, so chuck in a 6th summer signing in wherever you see fit.

Our defence.

I'd rather have no signings, if we renew Davies and get these two, we'll have 3 CB's with a combined age of 107...

So you're basing a full formational change based on 5 games from last season?
I can make a judgement on Stretton based on what I've seen. Inches away from scoring on his league debut for us, 3 goals in 173 minutes for Stockport and 8 in 696 minutes for the U23s last season. Since he became a first year scholar in 18/19, he's scored 37 in 3654 minutes of football at various levels, not far off 1 every 90 minutes. Some players, such as Whittaker, take time to adjust to the increased physicality. Stretton so far has stepped up seamlessly every single time.
10 games for 3rd choice isn't too unreasonable, I agree. But, it's something we can leave until January to re-evaluate. Keeping Davies as 3rd choice until then is also reasonable, as it's only asking him to step in for 5 games.
"At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Byrne gets injured". Well evidence shows Byrne will play in 90% of the available minutes, so the amount of games we have to 'rely' on McDonald or Ebosele is minimal.
McDonald played against Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Brentford, plus very short periods on the pitch vs Bristol, QPR and Bournemouth. That was 6 appearances vs top 9 sides. I think that shows he has Rooney's trust.
Yes, it's not unusual for young players in their debut seasons to have a bad run of form. Especially for a wing back during a congested schedule. We won't get any money for Forsyth and he'll be on low wages anyway, so it makes little sense to sign a replacement backup.
Lawrence was involved in 34 goals in his first 3 seasons with us (18 the season before). If that's "average", then there must be a lot excellent wingers in this league.
Don't forget the RB becuae you don't want us to rely on McDonald or Ebosele. Why not throw a GK in there too and we can have a whole new 11.
To have a squad which doesn't 'rely' on academy graduates filling tiny gaps as you seem to desire, you'd need at least 30 players. That's exceptionally unreasonable.
Reading used the 2nd fewest players last season with 27. I'm using them as my example as they're similar to us in terms of the academies. Of those 27, 7 played fewer than 180 minutes of football with a few more playing around 5 games. Essentially a 20 man squad, which contained 5 academy graduates (Rinomhota, Richards, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre) - similar to us with Buchanan, Bird, Knight and Sibley
Our squad make-up would match theirs with just 5/6 signings. A rough comparison of our squad for the upcoming season vs their from last season:

So you're basing a full formational change based on 5 games from last season?
I can make a judgement on Stretton based on what I've seen. Inches away from scoring on his league debut for us, 3 goals in 173 minutes for Stockport and 8 in 696 minutes for the U23s last season. Since he became a first year scholar in 18/19, he's scored 37 in 3654 minutes of football at various levels, not far off 1 every 90 minutes. Some players, such as Whittaker, take time to adjust to the increased physicality. Stretton so far has stepped up seamlessly every single time.
10 games for 3rd choice isn't too unreasonable, I agree. But, it's something we can leave until January to re-evaluate. Keeping Davies as 3rd choice until then is also reasonable, as it's only asking him to step in for 5 games.
"At rb we're relying on two untested youth players if Byrne gets injured". Well evidence shows Byrne will play in 90% of the available minutes, so the amount of games we have to 'rely' on McDonald or Ebosele is minimal.
McDonald played against Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Brentford, plus very short periods on the pitch vs Bristol, QPR and Bournemouth. That was 6 appearances vs top 9 sides. I think that shows he has Rooney's trust.
Yes, it's not unusual for young players in their debut seasons to have a bad run of form. Especially for a wing back during a congested schedule. We won't get any money for Forsyth and he'll be on low wages anyway, so it makes little sense to sign a replacement backup.
Lawrence was involved in 34 goals in his first 3 seasons with us (18 the season before). If that's "average", then there must be a lot excellent wingers in this league.
Don't forget the RB becuae you don't want us to rely on McDonald or Ebosele. Why not throw a GK in there too and we can have a whole new 11.
To have a squad which doesn't 'rely' on academy graduates filling tiny gaps as you seem to desire, you'd need at least 30 players. That's exceptionally unreasonable.
Reading used the 2nd fewest players last season with 27. I'm using them as my example as they're similar to us in terms of the academies. Of those 27, 7 played fewer than 180 minutes of football with a few more playing around 5 games. Essentially a 20 man squad, which contained 5 academy graduates (Rinomhota, Richards, Olise, Holmes, McIntyre) - similar to us with Buchanan, Bird, Knight and Sibley
Our squad make-up would match theirs with just 5/6 signings. A rough comparison of our squad for the upcoming season vs their from last season:

Looks to me like Bartosz Cybulski and Alex Matthews are both in this group photo.

You say the squad is weaker, and it is numbers wise. However;
57 appearances between Roberts, Waghorn and Gregory managed a massive 9 goals. Not hard to replace. 
In midfield only Rooney and Holmes have left or stopped playing that had double figures appearance wise last season. Both will not be missed. 
Which leaves us with Clarke, Wisdom and Edmunson in defence missing.  
If we aren't capable of signing a striker who can score 10 in 40 odd games to replace the dross up front, a midfielder to cover the 'loss' of Rooney and Holmes and a couple of defenders then we will be in trouble. 
If Mengi can perform as well as Wisdom, we can get a replacement for Clarke, sign a decent midfielder and get a half decent striker, we will be no worse off. Possibly better off. 
It really isn't a lot to ask for. I'm sure if we sign 5 or 6 players, they will add more to the squad than what has left on the fraction of the wages. 
And I'm sure with the youth players having more experience, the management team having more experience, we'd get more points. Only my opinion, but I'm not really panicking.

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.
GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton
 
Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.
We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

I'd assume if we did sell someone, it would be for enough to at least buy a replacement of equal ability.

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.
GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton
 
Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.
We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

We're in an embargo at the moment so can't pay anything anyway ?

I'd assume if we did sell someone, it would be for enough to at least buy a replacement of equal ability.

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.
GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton
 
Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.
We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.
GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton
 
Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.
We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.
GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton
 
Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.
We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

Is that so unreasonable? Over a month to go until our first league game so plenty of time to strengthen. Even with just 4 loans and 2 free the squad looks completely different.
GK: Roos, Marshall
RB: Byrne, Ebosele/McDonald
CB: Free, JBrown/Solomon/Cashin
CB: Mengi, Davies
LB: Buchanan, Forsyth
CM: Knight, Bird
CM: Shinnie, Bielik, Loan
AM: Sibley, Watson
RW: Jozwiak, Free
LW: Lawrence, Loan
CF: Loan, Kazim, Stretton
 
Roos and Marshall have both proven to be enough for the Championship.
We don't need a 4th senior CB, as we should be recruiting players who aren't injury prone (we've made that mistake too many times). This means JBrown/Cashin/Solomon's game time is limited to just a few late subs, or emergency cover if Davies picks up an injury. This position can be re-evaluated in January.
Full backs are fine, as Byrne and Buchanan have so far shown themselves to be fairly robust, meaning Forsyth and Ebosele/McDonald will only be needed for the odd game here and there during periods of fixture congestion.
Bird, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley and A.N.Other is enough to cover the 3 CM positions. This can also be re-evaluated in January depending on the recovery of Bielik and progression of Watson (or other U23)
4 wingers is obviously enough in this league.
3 CFs is enough for 1 position. The signing would expect to be a regular, with Kazim and Stretton providing good backup.
We should not be making signings for the unfortunate event of an injury. We've done that in the past and it led to a bloated wage bill, full of players we couldn't get rid of.

The weird thing is, going into last season, I thought we were a striker short of being a very good squad.  We'd kicked on under Cocu from when Rooney arrived, we'd addressed most of the major needs in the squad (with Matt Clarke back, Jozwiak and Marshall), we'd sold an asset but replaced him for a fraction of the cost (Byrne for Bogle) and so on.  Obviously things didn't pan out that way. 
This season, if you look at who we've lost compared to last season, it's only really Matt Clarke (who was excellent again) and Waghorn (who was poor for most of the season).  We've lost quite a few warm bodies - Gregory scored a few, Roberts showed the odd flash, bits and bobs from Menghi etc.  But bar Clarke, is there anyone that we've lost that will *really* be missed?
Obviously we're not in a good position at all, but there's plenty of reasons to think it can be turned around.  We desperately need a striker and 2 central defenders, but beyond that, the first XI isn't too bad.  Marshall/Roos, Byrne, Shinnie, Lawrence and CKR are still decent championship players. Jozwiak has had a decent Euros and should hopefully either be more settled and kick on, or be sold for a decent amount.  We should hopefully have Bielik for more of the season than last. Lawrence missed a lot of games last season too, he was missed. Knight, Bird, Buchanan have all got another year of championship football under their belts. Sibley started to establish himself back in the team towards the end of the season. McDonald, Ebosele, Watson etc have started to get first team football.  It's reasonable to think we can get 3 or 4 loans in relatively easily. With Rooney's name and a guarantee of first team football, I suspect we'll have a fair few top-end prem youngsters here.  And given the state of the transfer market, there are going to be a lot of players around on free transfers, so we can pick up a bunch more experienced warm bodies, if we need to.  
I'm not trying to gloss over the state of the squad, but it's not an unfixable problem.

Errr no not really, you edited your version to make it have a different meaning.
Why is it delusional, 7 weeks (?) from the transfer window shutting to say what he did?! Why are you panicking?

It's plainly obvious that the squad in it's current state will be relegated on points by Christmas, but that same squad with perhaps 3 players in the right positions and quality should be more than enough to be mid table. Add in the return of a hopefully fully functioning Bielik and we'll be more than safe in my opinion. Injuries with such a small squad would be a problem though.

"We have a core of senior players and extremely talented academy players." = We have the basis of a team for the season 
"That is enough to operate with and we have a plan for the rest of the window" = we will make signings
"We are not rushing to fill the squad for next week. We have a clear plan ready" = we will not panic and make signings for the sake of having the numbers immediately.
 
I'm not sure how you can read that and think we won't make any signings.

"We have a core of senior players and extremely talented academy players." = We have the basis of a team for the season 
"That is enough to operate with and we have a plan for the rest of the window" = we will make signings
"We are not rushing to fill the squad for next week. We have a clear plan ready" = we will not panic and make signings for the sake of having the numbers immediately.
 
I'm not sure how you can read that and think we won't make any signings.

"We have a core of senior players and extremely talented academy players." = We have the basis of a team for the season 
"That is enough to operate with and we have a plan for the rest of the window" = we will make signings
"We are not rushing to fill the squad for next week. We have a clear plan ready" = we will not panic and make signings for the sake of having the numbers immediately.
 
I'm not sure how you can read that and think we won't make any signings.